Friday, July 5, 2013

Parking Garage

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. John 14:6 (KJV)

Finding a car in a parking
garage shouldn’t be this difficult. I walked up the stairwell to the third
level and headed toward where I parked my car. Oddly, it wasn’t where I was
sure I’d left it, but I could see it facing me, across a metal rail.

I walked up around the ramp,
but my car wasn’t there. Returning to my original vantage point, I saw it again:
my car, with my license plate. It was right there in front of me, but I
couldn’t get to it. Up and back, up and back I went, seeing my car, not
reaching my car.

In desperation, I prepared
to propel myself from the metal rail, across the several storey drop, over and
up to the rail in front of my vehicle. The distance was more than my height,
but I was pretty sure I could do it.

“Don’t!” called a woman in
an SUV. She explained there were two levels with the same number--double ramps.
Go down the stairwell and up the other set of stairs.

Oh the things we go through
to get places in life, to find what it is we are looking for, to get what is
just out of our reach, to be “happy”. Our culture creates illusions of good
answers, but we end up going in circles and finishing empty, when all the while
we could have all that we need through Jesus.

Father, help us not to be
distracted by the directions our culture points us in, but instead to focus on You
for our direction. Amen.